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He had pictures of him with his parents and what looked like his sister Liz had never one to college out of state There wasn’t much else on the desk aside from a few crumpled papers with nu, because they looked like old marathon race nu sixty-hour weeks and e of newspaper articles he had pinned to a corkboard behind the pictures She found a feere his from the school press, a feere from other reporters, and one was from…her Liz stared, surprised It was the article she had written iven her the suggestion for He had one line highlighted in bright yellow that row It was her favorite line too

In an endless sea of overindulgence, find ti hile and make an informed, educated decision for yourself What matters to you in here, will matter to you out there

Liz smiled to herself She liked that he had enjoyed the article enough to post it up where anyone could see it

"All finished!" Hayden said, rushing back to his desk "I knew that wouldn’t take too long Want toa htly at her She had forgotten how much Hayden always s into work Even when she had been exhausted and irritable, he was there s everyone’s day

"I’d love to meet your friends Lead the way," she told him

They walked around the corner and stopped in front of two side-by-side desks Two guys in suits were seated in front of their computers They looked as if they were intent on their work, but as she lookedonline and playing soame Liz shook her head Men!

"Phillip! Topher!" Hayden said, clapping one of the guys on the back "Y’all, this is Liz"

They both looked up at once and said hi One guy stood and introduced hi his hand Liz shook it He was of average build and height, with really short curly brown hair and chipuy she assumed to be Phillip stood next and shook her hand He was exceedingly tall and skinny, with military-cut hair and crooked front teeth "Nice to meet you," Phillip said

"Nice to meet you too," Liz said with a s about getting ti about it," Topher said, crossing his ar

Liz locked eyes with Hayden for a second and then she broke the look He had been talking about her…

"Thanks for rattingout Are you guys still good for drinks this weekend?"

"Definitely," Topher agreed

"Depends," Phillip said, leaning in close to Hayden and raising his eyebrows "Is Jaroaned "That’s my sister, man"

"So, is that a yes?"

"You’re sick"

"We’ll see you out this weekend," Topher said, s the back of Phillip’s head "It was nice to meet you, Liz"

"You too," she said with a confident s at Phillip, but Liz could see the hu and walked out into the parking lot toward Liz’s car Hayden slid out of his jacket and tie before they even made it all the way to where she was parked

"Do you want me to drive?" he asked "I know a place we can park your car near ate DC traffic"

"Uh that er side

He laughed as he popped the door and sat down "Geez, how short are you?" he asked as he adjusted the seat back for his long legs

"You’re just tall," Liz said with a shrug

Hayden pulled out of the parking lot and started driving the amount of traffic Not that she was unfamiliar with traffic, but DC rush hour pretty much took the cake Nearly forty-five minutes later, Hayden had the car parked in a street spot

"This is as close as we’re going to get Is this okay with you?" he asked, putting the car into park

"Absolutely not I want to go back out in that terrible h as she pushed her door open "Get ," Hayden said

"A silver lining!" Liz opened the trunk, and Hayden reached in before she got a chance and pulled her suitcase out He set it on the ground and rolled it behind hi her objections

They stopped in front of a brick building that looked like all of the other brick buildings it was attached to, but Hayden see He pulled a key out of his pocket and let the up the stairs

She walked up five exhaustingly long flights of stairs as Hayden walked behind her carrying her suitcase She did not envy hi, Liz finally landed at the top floor She dropped her hands to her knees and caught her breath Hayden appeared next to her with his ever-present s? I feel ridiculous," she said, looking up at hi

"I play tennis and I’ tennis?" he asked